Friday 9 December 2016- 19 December 2016

Canada Montreal Mission

Friday 9 December 2016-19 December 2016

Dear Family and Friends:

The holiday season is upon us.  We have been invited out about once a week to member’s homes.  It is nice to visit with them and hear about the history of the ward.

Saturday, 10 Dec 2016—Christmas dinner in the Champlain Ward, the ward that meets in our building.  There is a picture of two ladies that I have attached.  The sister on the left is the one we have been working with; the one on the right is in the other ward. She just got baptized in November. 

Sunday 11 Dec 2016—After church, we had Ward Council.  All of the missionaries attend plus the auxiliary leaders.  They mainly discuss how people needing extra support can be helped.  It is a great opportunity to serve and help influence people’s lives in a positive way.  I volunteered to work on Christmas baskets given out to several ward members.  It was fun shopping for the items (mainly Christmas sweets).  I have attached some pictures.  In the grocery store, I would stop people and ask them if Canadians liked a certain cookie.  I figured Yule logs would be a hit and anything chocolate or caramel. 

Monday-Wednesday Dec 12-14, 2016—Elder Scott continued to help our friends as they do the finishing touches on their kitchen.  He worked on tiling the kitchen floor after their cabinets and countertops were put in.  I have attached a few pictures and will take more of the finished product to send.   On Wednesday evening, I worked again with the scouts and young women age 8-12 for a joint activity.  They meet together once every two months to do activities.  We meet with both wards.  Most of the kids are bilingual, but a few aren’t completely bilingual.  (If you think it is hard to understand an adult speaking French, it is even harder to understand kids…).  I drove as it wasn’t snowing when I arrived.  At the end of 2 hours, there was about 3 inches of snow all over the car.  It was a bit scary driving home in the snow with 4-wheel drive, but Elder Scott had been walking me through it every time he drives. 

Friday, 16 Dec 2016—There was a Stake Nativity activity.  This was a “live” nativity with real animals.  I have attached a few pictures.  They did a live presentation in English and in French.  It was open to the public and was quite well attended.  There are pictures of two shepherds that you might think look familiar. Our job was to direct the “weary travelers” back into the cultural hall to get hot chocolate and look at the nativity scenes after they saw the live presentation.  It was “very” cold outside—may -10 degrees.  Our fingers got so cold that we had to come in.  We brought 3 people to see it.

Saturday, 17 Dec 2016—We worked with two sets of missionaries and continued the move out of one of the elder’s apartments.  The Zone Leaders have a truck, which we loaded with “Good Will” items and sent it off.  (On Monday, Dec 19, after the Zone Conference, we helped a couple load the rest of the stuff and take it to a storage unit in Montreal.)

After that, we made 2 apartment inspections. 

Sunday, 18 December 2016—Our Mission President attended our Sacrament meeting and told a story that occurred at Christmas in his mission nearly 40 years ago in the south of France.  He and his companion converted a sister, then he was transferred and he went home.  During training to become a Mission President, he was at the Missionary Training Center (MTC) in Provo, Utah.  He met with Elder Causé, who is a General Authority of the church.  Elder Causé’s wife either knew this woman or knew a women who knew her.  When President Phillips saw the couple again at the MTC, she showed him an email that she had just received from a friend in France.  The woman had just died at age 90, but had remained active in the church for the past 40 years.

After church, we had cake, which we cut and passed out.  It was left over (and frozen) from our Ward Christmas party two weeks earlier.  I don’t think anyone cared about the reason; they just liked the cake.  When Cost-co scores the cake into 48 portions, it makes it easy to cut it quickly.

A friend asked us for dinner, then, right after, we went back to the church.  We met the youth from the church and several families to go Christmas caroling and hand out the “roses” that were made in October.  It was about -18 degrees.  I didn’t have thermals on and I must say it was COLD.  But, everyone seemed to have fun.  We went to one house where we thought a less-active person lived.  The sister missionaries had been trying to contact her.  After we sang French carols, the man offered to pay us.  (Apparently, that is the custom in some countries).  We said, “no, thank you.”  The sisters asked for the lady whom we thought lived there.  The man said that she had moved and that he was the new tenant.  The sisters got his contact information and he said he’d like to attend church.  A real Christmas miracle.  Afterwards, we came back to the church and had hot chocolate and cookies.  I have attached pictures.

Monday, 19 December 2016—The Zone Conference with our Mission President and his wife.  (Pictures attached.)  I was asked to get the lunch together—it was fun.  The elders and sisters got packages from home.  There were also presents for those elders and sisters who didn’t receive packages from home.  The President spoke of the importance of goal setting and of really understanding how the Atonement can make us happy and those of the people who missionaries teach.  I invite you to reread 1 Nephi 8:10-11 about the tree of life.  The fruit of which Nephi speaks is the Atonement, which can bring us happiness beyond what we can ever imagine.

The picture of Elder Scott is him in the women’s restroom.  Now, why, would you ask is he in the women’s restroom.  Well, I was in the kitchen at another ward preparing the lunch.  I washed my hands and noticed that the paper towel dispenser didn’t work.  I called Elder Scott and Larson (in the Montreal Mission Office) to try to fix it and make the paper work.  They “key” that opens the paper container didn’t work and you could see that the paper was stuck on the roller.  While they were working on that, I went down to the Ladies restroom only to find out that the two paper towel dispensers were also jammed and one of the handles on the 2 sinks was off and sitting on the counter.  Well, to make a long story short, he went about to his tools in the car, fixed 3 paper towel dispensers and even repaired the faucet!!!  The Mission President’s wife came in to check on the paper towel situation and was thrilled to hear that they were getting fixed.

The missionaries also got flu shots today—luckily we had already gotten ours.  Our sister missionaries had us hold their hand while they got their shots.  Apparently the lady was very good.  Everyone got OJ afterwards.

Of course, we wish you and your family a Merry Christmas.  We hope you have taken time to go to Mormon.org and watch the daily video about how you can be service to others, as was Christ.

Much love,

Steve and Rose Scott

PS—The other photo is of “Creton”—a mixture somewhat like pâté, if you like type of thing.  Elder Scott likes it.  He’ll have plenty of it.